The Perfect Solution

Why do have faith in God? The best reason I can think of is that God is perfect. If you are going to have faith in someone, that person must be trustworthy. People are flawed. I have learned that I can't even have faith some of my own relatives. I certainly have no faith in the business. That leaves only God. I trust God. When I see terrible things happen, I remind myself that I am not seeing the whole picture as God does. It lets me accept pain and hardship. It is a very effective strategy for staying motivated to be good.
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Crossed Purposes

What do you think Christ meant when he instructed his followers to 'pick up your cross and follow me'? It sounds like he expected them to suffer. Why would a good man want his followers to suffer? And how does one pick up one's cross, as it were? The answer to both questions lies in answering the second one. Humans spend a great deal of time escaping discomfort through dishonesty. When truth troubles or hurts them, they simply pan it, often in favour of a custom made lie from the TV or some other commercial source. To face unpleasant truths is to subject oneself to suffering; it is to pick up a cross of punishment. Christ had special knowledge of the afterlife. He knew that this life, with all its pain, is only passing. By suffering for truth in this world, we may escape suffering in the next, more permanent living arrangement. Conversely, by trying to escape suffering for truth in this world, we may have to face it for all eternity at the end of our time on Earth. He believed this so profoundly that he let himself be crucified here. A few hours on the cross bought him eternal glory. Pretty good deal. (The cross also can be seen as a letter 't' for 'truth', but that's only effective for Anglophones.) While those violators may curse me now for getting them into trouble over their crimes, they may actually be grateful to me when they come to the end of their lives. My siblings, in particular, love my parents and do not want to lose them. By suffering punishment for their sins in this life, the door is open for these brothers of mine for a glorious reunion with their dearly departed when their own time comes. On the other hand, God doesn't seem to have let George Carlin have this opportunity. There are still a few bitter Carlin fans out there, and I would submit that their bitterness belies the torment passed on to them from their late hero in his new, permanent location.
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Why We're Here

As an atheist I once wrote that we may only be here to make plastic. I've since had more time to consider the question, and I take it most seriously. One of the things I used to enjoy about being an atheist was that it made me the centre of my universe. There were no challengers. There was stronger temptation to sin because my fear of punishment was gone, but I wanted to test my morality by trying to be good without God. When I had that transforming experience back in 2007, I had been an atheist for so long that my Christian entries looked almost alien to me before I erased them. The second time I had this paranormal experience in 2010, I knew that it was connected to my online work and I no longer thought I was crazy. That is why I am going to stay as I am until the day I die. The hardest thing for me to accept about being confronted with what I believed to be the reality of God was the humility. It was discomforting at first to learn that I was not the centre of the universe. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. People wonder why we are here. I think we are here to learn humility. Life is humbling. It is one long humiliation which ends in the ultimate failure of our bodies to even support life. This may have been why Jesus was humble. He was trying to show us the best way out of this life. There is no room for an almighty God without humility. This makes humility perhaps the most important condition for admission into the Kingdom of God.
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We Can Handle It

Pain can bring the worst out in us and I'm grateful that most of my readers have been tolerant of my behaviour when I'm not myself. When I'm in pain I often say things I don't mean. I can't think straight. I lash out in a vain effort to put a stop to my ordeal. Then later on, when I'm back to my normal, relaxed self, I feel ashamed of how I acted. There are probably two types of pain: righteous pain caused by accident, tragedy, or injustice, and punitive pain, self imposed by our own wrongful behaviour. I'm quite sure that all of the pain I have suffered over my work is righteous pain inflicted on me by those who stole from me. Again it is helpful to contemplate Christ's passion and crucifixion when we are in pain. He showed us the proper way to handle it. We must accept pain and try to grow from it. We must have faith in God. There is a beautiful future waiting for each of us at the end of our time here. We must never lose hope.
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The Two Thousand Year Old Question

Some say that the miracles reported to have been performed by Jesus were more believable in ancient times because of a lack of scientific knowledge. I think people would doubt the miracles in any age. Raising people from the dead is an uncommon talent. Maybe we didn't witness the resurrection firsthand but if the account survived for two thousand years, maybe it's because others did. It would surely be remembered and passed on to future generations.
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John 3:20

All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. (John 3:20) What light do you think Jesus was talking about here? I think he was talking about the light of truth. The light of truth exposes ugly lies. Television in its current form is like a spiritual darkness. It might make you feel good for the moment, erasing all your worldly concerns, offering shelter from reality, but the longer you stay in its darkness, the harder it is to face the light.
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No Kidding

Christ's teaching to become as a child to enter the Kingdom of God actually agrees with scientific theory. I read in an anthropology book a while ago that chimpanzee infants parallel human infants in intelligence until the age of four. After that, the intellectual development in chimpanzees is choked off by their materialistic search for bananas and sex, while human infants continue to indulge in abstract thinking and their brains continue to develop. It is a process called neoteny, by which adults retain childish characteristics, that raises us above other primates. And according to Christ, childish imagination doesn't just give us the Theory of Relativity and heavier-than-air flight, it also gives us the Kingdom of God. June 30, 2017: When I originally posted the above I overlooked an even more important aspect of childhood: it is the most sincere time of our lives. We adore children because they are totally sincere. They only know how to be themselves, having not yet adopted the imitative practices of their elders. Even an unhappy girl is cute as she makes no effort to hide her grumpy face. Since the Kingdom of God is fashioned from your own heart, you cannot find it unless you are being yourself and no one else, like such a child. To assume the air and manner of someone else separates you from the Kingdom of God. I owe La Rochefoucauld for opening my eyes to this insight. July 3, 2017: After being forced to eat raw pasta, as a result of sharing my kitchen with someone who is seventeen years my senior, I am compelled to share this next thought on the importance of entering the Kingdom of God as a child. From what I can tell, a lot of seniors take their advanced years as a kind of license to pass premature judgement on their juniors. Well, God Almighty is timeless, and He certainly outranks us all in age. The very same logic that a senior might use to presume superiority over a junior could be leveled by God against him. I'm sure my young readers would support my contention that such arrogance will be punished by God in the hereafter. God is the oldest and wisest being in the universe and He will not tolerate any sort of arrogance arising from outranking mere mortals in age; take it from a fifty-one-year-old. How old was Jesus at his crucifixion? Thirty-three? God is expecting a child when He meets you. How much have you learned in all your years on earth? If you have learned anything here, it better be humility, at least if you want any hope of salvation in the life to come. Amen!
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